Mr. Wallace 0.
July 18, 1980

Green

Page Three

I have enclosed a recent critique of the Bender and Brill
Rnewetak Assessment, which calls into serious question the anelysis

and recommendations contained in that study.

This recent critique,

performed by Dr. Rosalie Bertell of the Ministry of Concern for Public
Health, challenges the interpretation of radiological data by Drs.
Sender and Brill, and Dr. Bertell suggests prudence in considering the
proposed resettlement of MJebi.
énother critique (also enclosed) by Dr. Karl Z. Morgan raises very
serious questions about the dose assessment calculations of Drs. Bender

and Brill, and on the basis of his analysis of the Pender-frill study,

Dr. Morgan seems to suggest that their study is inadequate for making

a determination about the proposed resettlement of mMmjebi.

In all honesty, I do indeed favor the resettlezent of Mmjebi, but
only on the condition that another assessment of the potential health
risks be commissioned by truly independent and non-governmental radiation

experts having no connection with the United States Government.
The
Bender-Brill assessment has been criticized by well-respected radiation
experts, and as competent as these two researchers may be, they present

us with an inherent conflict of interest:
as you may know, both Bender
and Brill are employees of Brookhaven National Laboretory, end there is
an inherent cor.flict of interest when Govermment researchers assess
Government data.

As en alternative, I propose that a group of truly indevendent
radiation experts be allowed to survey Mmewetak and MInjebi, as well
as all of the Northern Marshall Islands which were exposed to fallout
during the testing program.
I have in mind several radiation experts

and doctors from an independent organization know as "Physicians for

Social Responsibility"

(PSR), which is based in Boston, and which has

a membership of more than 1,500 physicians and scientists in the United
States.

I have been in recent commnication with members of that

organization,

and I am told that PSR is very interested in doing an

independent survey of the Marshall Islands, and in making recommendations
based upon such a survey.
Such an indevendent survey and assessment may ceuse a slight delay
in the Injebi resettlement, but I do maintain that an additional six
months or so is really an infinitesimal period when contrasted with the’
33 years of exile already experienced by the Injebi people.

Such a

survey will go a long way to attain some degree of objectivity in the
Marshalls, and it may be a way out of the “nuclear quagmire" which has
caused much in-fighting between various Government agencies involved with
the Marshall Islands, as well es the intermal conflicts between the new
Marshell Islands Government and the people of Mewetak. For me, such a
survey by independent radiation experts seems like an obvious solution
at the present time, end we can only benefit from another point of view

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